For almost 10 years, Josh and Sarah Kimbrough have worked to build a home on the windswept high plains of Colorado’s rugged South Park.
The couple bought their 23-acre property in 2017 as a place away from the chaos of Denver life, and where Josh could heal from the brain injuries and trauma he suffered while serving in the U.S. Army. For years, they lived in an RV on the property in the central high valley, which is surrounded by mountains, as they built a home.
They learned how to use excavators and other heavy machinery. They dug out their basement, installed a septic tank and plumbing lines, and wired a solar-powered electrical system. They bought and transported a two-room log cabin from Montana. They installed a playground for their children, ages 7 and 1.
On March 25, they received their certificate of occupancy and officially moved into their cabin.
“Itap a sanctuary,” said Josh Kimbrough, 41. “It’s the first time in a very long time that I’ve been able to reduce my stress level enough to do some meaningful therapy work and become the person I want to be — versus the constantly triggered, high-anxiety person I’ve been.”
But what was meant to be a long-term home now feels uncertain. In February, Aurora Water announced its plans to on a swath of land that includes the Kimbroughs’ parcel.
The decision by the faraway city’s water utility has pitted two pursuits of stability against each other: Aurora Water’s hunt for reliable water supplies and the Kimbroughs’ search for peace.
“It has completely stripped me of all sense of stability and security for my family,” Josh Kimbrough said.
Aurora Water, for years, has sought to build a new reservoir so it can store more water for extreme drought years like this one.
The new body of water, to be named the Wild Horse Reservoir, would become the city’s largest at a capacity of 95,000 acre-feet. It would significantly from 150,000 acre-feet to 245,000 acre-feet. An acre-foot of water is the amount of water it takes to cover an acre in a foot of water — more than 325,000 gallons — which is enough water for three Aurora households’ annual use.
The project is critically important for the growing city, said Sarah Young, an assistant general manager for the utility.
“If we don’t have the ability to store water for times of drought or emergencies, then we lose the ability to provide water to over 400,000 people,” Young said.
‘Not an easy decision,’ utility says
Aurora Water first planned to build the new reservoir at a different site that’s closer to Hartsel. It purchased the vast majority of the land needed to construct the reservoir there, but it stopped short of exercising eminent domain on the remaining necessary parcels.
However, showed that the current site, located farther south, made more engineering sense.
The southern location would require one dam instead of three, which would simplify operations and greatly reduce the risk of problems, said Zachary Henry, a communications strategist for Aurora Water working on the reservoir project. The southern site also would not require the creation of a new quarry for dam materials, minimizing environmental impacts.
But there’s one complication: People live on the 1,700 acres of land the utility needs for the reservoir.
“This was not an easy decision for us, even though all the engineering and costs led to this site,” Young said. “We really struggled with this decision because of the residents living down there.”
Several hundred people own land in the planned reservoir’s footprint, but only seven of those properties include a habitable residence — including the Kimbroughs’, Young said.
The city has already purchased several properties that were for sale in the area and is working with other landowners who would rather sell now than wait. Aurora water officials are talking with the remaining owners to determine the best way forward without resorting to eminent domain to seize the land.
“We have a lot of time,” said Lyle Whitney, a project manager with Aurora Water who has overseen communication with landowners. “We don’t want to rush; we want to make it right.”
The utility’s leaders want to offer landowners deals that are as good or better than their current situation, Whitney said.
Aurora Water officials acknowledged the uncertainty the reservoir plans created for landowners in the footprint. They have had multiple conversations with the Kimbrough family to find solutions.
“I understand his desire for stability and peace up there, and we’re trying to do right by them,” Henry said.
Loss of stability
But up in South Park, Kimbrough once again is struggling to sleep at night.
He lies in bed and runs the numbers: how much they might get for their land, what that money could buy elsewhere, whether they could afford the property tax there.
Kimbrough received an honorable medical discharge from the Army in 2006 after serving three years and deploying during the Iraq War to Baghdad, where he and held multiple forward operating bases. During his service, he suffered two traumatic brain injuries — one during a training exercise when his parachute malfunctioned, and the second when rocket-propelled grenades exploded just feet from a Humvee he was leaning halfway out of.
After his discharge, he returned home to the Denver area and enrolled at Metropolitan State University, where he met Sarah. But he struggled to find stability and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Four times, he was admitted to emergency mental health services.
South Park was his escape.
And now, learning that he and his family might have to move from the land they poured thousands of hours into has been crushing, he said. Kimbrough has spent much of his time working on the property, but now the remaining projects — landscaping, finishing the basement — seem pointless to pursue.
The couple planned very carefully so that they could afford to own a house and raise a family on their budget. They worry that fair market compensation for their modestly valued property in a remote valley would not be enough to buy a home elsewhere.
Even if Aurora were to acquire a larger or more expensive home for them, they worry they would not be able to afford the property tax on Kimbrough’s fixed disability income.
“I don’t think Aurora has the same ideas of what people value as what my family values,” he said. “We don’t value quantity and bigger houses — we value quality time and living within our means.
“We’re very happy out here in the middle of nowhere, without electric bills and water bills and huge property bills.”
The permitting for the reservoir is in early stages, and construction on the dam won’t begin until 2028 at the earliest, Young said. After the dam is complete, it will take several more years to fill the reservoir. The project is expected to cost more than $1 billion, she said.
The amount of time before the water flows is little comfort to the Kimbroughs. The family hired an eminent domain attorney to prepare — a large, unexpected expense. It’s one of the expenses they .
“Itap really hard, personally, to have gone to war for this country,” Kimbrough said, “and then have the Aurora government come and rip out every bit of stability from under my feet.”
